Agreeing to Disagree

For 12 years, King Saul hunted David like he was an animal. David lived in caves, hid in mountains, and even lived with his old enemy, the Philistines. It happened that King Saul went into a cave where David was hiding. Finally, David had the opportunity to kill Saul and end the reign of terror. Seeing the king asleep, David took out his knife and but instead of killing Saul, he merely cut off a piece of his robe. Saul never even knew it happened. When Saul left the cave, David showed him the cutting and shouted to him, “May the Lord Judge between you and me.” (1 Sam 24:12).

In modern language David effectively said, “Saul, I don’t understand why you are trying to kill me, but I will not raise my hand against you. I will let the Lord handle all of this.”

It is a rare person who can truly agree to disagree and leave everything in God’s hands. We all want all want relief. We all want justice. We all want our own way.

We can be like the little boy who came home from school and told his mother that the bully in class had hit him and that tomorrow he was going to hit him back. His mother told him that vengeance belongs to the Lord and he needs to let God handle it. Little Johnny replied, “Okay, I will give him until Friday.”

Sometimes you have to agree to disagree, but in so doing, you must not be spiteful or hateful. Sometimes you have to let the other person be who they are. You have to say, “May the Lord judge between you and me.”

When David did that, he showed himself to be the bigger man. Sometimes you just have to be the bigger person and let God handle things.

Lonnie Davis